This disclosure relates to cooling arrangements and, more particularly, to an air-to-air cooling arrangement for a gas turbine engine.
Gas turbine engines are known and used for propulsion in vehicles, such as an aircraft. For example, a typical gas turbine engine includes a combustion section for combusting fuel and air to generate hot combustion gases. The combustion gases expand in a turbine section to provide rotational power that is used to propel the vehicle. The combustion gases are then discharged from of the engine through an exhaust nozzle.
Typically, the combustion is designed to occur in a particular temperature range to maximize the efficiency of the engine. However, the temperature at surfaces of engine components may be limited by the materials that are used to construct the engine. For example, the surface temperature in the combustor, turbine section, and exhaust nozzle cannot exceed the operating temperatures of the materials used to construct these components, although the temperature in the gas path of the combination gases may exceed this.
Accordingly, there is a need for a cooling method and arrangement that maintains the exhaust nozzle at a desirable temperature.